There Might Be An Open PowerVR Driver In Q3'11

If the PR representative I just spoke with at CES actually knows what she's talking about when it comes to Linux, in the third quarter of this year there may be an open-source PowerVR driver for Linux.

Whether it's just a open-source Linux graphics driver for the kernel side, like what has been done by Qualcomm and others where the open kernel driver is tied to closed-source user-space bits, which is common with embedded GPUs on Linux causing a great big mess and leads to the kernel driver not hitting the mainline tree, or not, is uncertain. The response from the representative is that it will be "the whole driver", but I am not particularly confident in most people at the Consumer Electronics Show when it comes to talking about Linux.

For now I would not break out the champagne and cigars in celebration quite yet, but it looks like there will be some sort of PowerVR Linux play coming up in the third quarter which would put it around the time of the Linux 2.6.40 kernel... Will try to find out some information from other independent parties on this matter, but for now it's off to lunch with VIA and hope their representatives know a thing or two about Linux and whether their open-source Linux strategy is dead.